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ATC SCM150 (or JBL Synthesis) (or JBL vintage) (or new Klipsch Jubilee)

Hi. My name is Juan. I'm from Spain. Sorry for my horrible english... 

It´s a pleasure to be on the Audiogon community.  

Many months searching webs, forums, shows, videos, "expert" opinions, "commercial" opinions, sellers with "interests", sellers "without any interest"... Hi-Fi world is a long trip, a difficult trip with "shine" products and (at least) a five digit price... A jungle for rich men. A paradise for the new economies. Another "economic bubble"....

If you are a person like me, with little knowledge, it´s easy to be scared...

I'm looking to set up a hi-fi system. I'm using Qobuz streaming service (no CD´s and no vinyls).  

I like so much ATC. Is one of the few brands that have all my trust. They are a legendary brand but most important, they are a brand that goes "against" the market. They are a brand focussed on the professional market and for them the most important is the sound.

I´m really interested on the SCM150 speakers (tower version). I have exchanged some messages with the technichal department of the brand, but I would like also to hear the expert opinion of the audiogon community.

Some questions. Thanks in advance for all your recommendations:

1) How would you describe ATC sound?? For me, they have the best mid of the market. Some people call this sound as "neutral fidelity". Neutral sounds (instead of warm) it doesn´t to have to be negative. On the contrary, is a virtue to my eyes. But in your opinion, it could be exccesively analytical?? Could cause fatigue??

2) What´s your opinion about ATC bass in general and the SCM150 bass in particular??

3) Active vs passive. Most of the people (it doesn´t surprise me) seem to prefer the active version or active sound. As you know, the SCM150 can go with the P6 amplifier (it doesn´t goes in this case on the loudspeaker box). What´s your opinion about this amplificaction in particular?? What´s your opinion in general about the active version?? It is your personal preference?? (there was a nice thread about this item: https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/atc-active-vs-passive).  (audiotroy and lonemountain seem to know so much about this brand).

4) If I go with the active version I will need a preamplifier. You will go with Solid State instead or valves (the "particular" sound of valves could be counterrproductive with this speakers that reveal any imperfection and they are also speakers that need power)??

5) I see great combinations with Spectral pre. Some people also recommend Bricasti, Simaudio seems also to suits... I would like a pre that gives some "warm" and musical sound to compensate the neutrality of the ATC. What would be your recommendation?? Please specify brand and model. I want a nice piece at the level of the SCM150.

6) What´s your general opinion about ATC speakers?? It would be one of your first choices??

7) In the comparison with other "professional" brand as JBL Synthesis (K2 model for example) what would be your choice??

8) In the comparison with some JBL vintage models from JBL what would be your choice?? I´m talking specifically about Henrick Sound customs 4344 and 4351 (vertical version of the 4350). Any thought??

(webs Kenrick: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3A0nuJpz3NnPi2luPj41fA and https://www.facebook.com/Kenrick-Sound-244510272314291/ and http://jbl43.com/?mode=f3);

(model 4351: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYJFU2QoVI4);

(model 4344: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EfhG0hcTy0).

9) In the comparison with the new Klipsch Jubilee (I talked with Roy Delgado and they are supposed to be on the market at the end of the year) what would be your recommendation?? Yes, I know that are not yet on the market so no one has been able to hear them but as a horn technology and according to some other models (for example Kilspchorns) what we can expect?? Is Klipsch really at the level of ATC or the JBL´S.

Thanks so much to everyone. Your comments would be very helpful to me.




milhomes
mglik
889 posts
 
OK Juan,
A speaker is only as good as the designer’s voicing and the listener’s ear. You you also need to consider the amplifier. One might say that speaker and amp are the “two hands clapping” in a system.
The amplifier match is critical. If I were not going to buy ATC, I would buy  Fyne F1-12 and a Luxman 509 integrated amp!
I believe the Fyne speaker to be the evolution of the legendary Tannoy Westminster Royal which I lived with and loved for many years. As the Tannoy, the Fynes are easy to drive so the Class A 30 watts of the Luxman will be enough and sweet. The F1-12s are beautiful and designed by the people who previously worked at Tannoy. The Fyne speakers are highly thought of and sound like music.
What is your budget??
austinlawyer
3 posts
 
I think I know what you ended up with, if so you made the right choice.

Congratulations. 
hedwigstheme
120 posts
 
ATC Active--but a smaller model (50 or 100) with a SWARM subwoofer system (http://www.audiokinesis.com/the-swarm-subwoofer-system-1.html) for better distribution of bass peaks and nulls. ATC SCA2 preamp or Benchmark LA4.
Ag insider logo xs@2x
lonemountain
415 posts
 
Interesting thread-always interesting to hear what other perspectives are.  I am the US importer and Lone Mountain.  I am also the US pro importer distributor and have been for 20+ years.  I did not always eork for ATC, I spent years at JBL, was the Dahlquist rep for many years in the midwest and ran a high end shop back in the mid to late 70s during the hey day of Magnapans, DCM Time Windows, KEF 104's and many others.  That KEF was the most amazing thing I ever heard.  Too bad Ray is out of the business now but he advanced the whole speaker business by himself.  Same for a lot of the great English manufacturers who were small engineering houses that "built their own". .A LOT of our current body of work is owed to these inventors and the companies they owned.     

From where i sit the speaker business is a manufacturing business and therefore an engineering business.  That's why people like JBL, Revel, Magico and of course ATC impress me.  They invest a lot of time engineering their way though problems.  All of them get the single most important part of playback is the driver, where the energy transforms from electrical to acoustical.  A speaker builder not building their own drivers trying to be successful with one hand tied behind their back.  

Drivers offer the possibility of lower distortion if you build very good ones.  Once the distortion is created in the driver you cant get it out- not DSP, not cabinets, not amplifiers, or preamps.  ATC is one of the very very few that still builds their own drivers and parts and focuses on this singular idea: lower distortion means more music.  Distortion acts like masking, it covers up details.  It may be hardly audible as distortion, but its audible when the details disappear and the timbre starts to sound different than the real event.   Give me accuracy and I'll take my chances with bad recordings thank you.  Besides, some bad recordings are charming- like super old Elvis masters and old recordings of Aretha Franklin. 

I'm not sure where this idea that low distortion studio monitors = harsh.  Or mid forward.  Or bad sound,   It must be related to old monitors that the industry long ago abandoned for critical listening, such as horn based big two ways with crossover points at 800Hz, or giant bad sounding amplifiers like old Crowns.  Some of those combinations can be so harsh as to rip your head off.  Honestly NO ONE credible uses them as a sole reference anymore.  All that really good sounding stuff that we call high end recordings was done on a very very good system.   Its scary that some people think those recordings like Fleetwood Mac or Steely Dan where an accident or something.  No, a lot of people spent months or even longer building those recordings piece by piece and making them as perfect as humanly possible.  Actually these recording engineers have the same passion for audio that audiophiles do, they live for it. 

From my way of thinking a speaker that the artists use because they can finally hear it like it is would represent something an audiophile would want.   Do we really think that Tom Petty doesn't know what sounds good, or Fleetwood Mac, or Hiromi or Joni Mitchell?  

Brad

PS, mglik, love to talk to you about ATC sometime.  When we took over, we got zero information from Flat Earth.  We literally started from zero.  

pani
1,214 posts
 
@millhomes, I love big speakers for the same reason as you suggested. Big speakers present dynamics big and effortless. And I have listened to a lot of ATC, Tannoys & Altecs. Here is one simple thing you need to know.

ATC SCM150 is a big speaker and it needs VERY BIG room or at least a very well treated big room. It has a prodigious bass which takes over the room. In comparison the SCM100 is much more easy to use. It sounds like a monitor and fills a big room "nicely", without overwhelming. And sonically the 100 and 150 are in the same level. The bigness of 150 is just too much. On the contrary the big speakers from Altec, JBL, Tannoys do not overpower the room even though they have big drivers. They can sound intimate in a 250 - 350sqft room, just like SCM100. Careful with 150!
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